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Muzzy misfire question

cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
On Sunday, while trying to move some deer for Kody I slipped down a steep bank. Of course, I banged the gun off the ground and was worried the scope might be off. When we finished, Kody "unloaded" the gun and missed the target he was aiming at. I think he rushed the shot, but regardless, he missed.
We had to get going for Kody's basketball game so we didn't have time to reload and shoot. We wrere already late. Sooo...

yesterday my dad took the gun out in our back field and attempted to make sure it was sighted in. On the first shot the gun didn't fire. On the second, there was a long hesitation before it went off.

He reloaded and the same thing happened. First shot nothing. Second shot it fired after a hesitation.

I'm getting this information second hand from him and haven't had a chance to shoot it because of the rain. Bright side... it's still sighted in. However, what may cause these misfires and hesitations? My dad wanted me to post this to see if any of you might know.

He is worried maybe he is pushing the bullet down and snugging it too tight. In contrast, when I load, I just push the bullet down until it stops and that's it. He tends to keep shoving to make sure it's snug.

The gun is a Traditions "Buckstalker". We are shooting 50 cal, 250 grain, Black Horn powder with CCI primers.

Anyone experience this? Any tips?
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Ditto to what Drake said. Also, with the way the hammer is on that thing, it is possible it got whacked as well causing an issue with the firing pin. Is it denting the primer on the first shot and not firing?
 

Lundy

Member
1,307
127
The compression of the bullet on the powder will have no bearing on ignition with traditional black powder substitutes, especailly too much pressure. If there is not enough compression on the smokeless powder it will not ignite.

The fact that Pyrodex, T7, black powder does not need to be compressed to ignite adds to the fact that you always need to know that your bullet if fully seating on the powder charge. I have seen more than one MZ with loose loading bullets that have moved while hunting down the barrel and have created an barrel obstruction when the gun was shot bursting the barrel.

It soulds like you have a simple case of a dirty breech plug that is obstructing the ignition path OR you have powder than has absorbed some mositure and is difficult to ignite.
 

bigten05

*Supporting Member*
3,675
151
knox county ohio
sounds like a dirty breech to me, a little tip i know a guy that drilled out a breech because it was clogged with a bunch of junk, on the next shot after he put it back together he got some back flash and it caused him to go blind in that eye, so dont try anything crazy like that.
 

DJK Frank 16

Senior Member
Supporting Member
9,358
133
Hardin County
sounds like a dirty breech to me, a little tip i know a guy that drilled out a breech because it was clogged with a bunch of junk, on the next shot after he put it back together he got some back flash and it caused him to go blind in that eye, so dont try anything crazy like that.

Wow yeah you definitely don't want any more space in there than what they are designed for.
 

DJK Frank 16

Senior Member
Supporting Member
9,358
133
Hardin County
I've had that problem as well, but back when I was using no.11 percussion caps, have the gun out in the cold all day, take it inside, the gun collects moisture and those percussion caps just didn't provide enough fire to ignite, or it would hang fire.

Replaced it with a 209 primer and haven't had an issue with that since, although I try to keep it in the garage in the cold during muzzy season if I don't fire it off at the end of the day.
 

Hunter II

Junior Member
604
127
The compression of the bullet on the powder will have no bearing on ignition with traditional black powder substitutes, especailly too much pressure. If there is not enough compression on the smokeless powder it will not ignite.

The fact that Pyrodex, T7, black powder does not need to be compressed to ignite adds to the fact that you always need to know that your bullet if fully seating on the powder charge. I have seen more than one MZ with loose loading bullets that have moved while hunting down the barrel and have created an barrel obstruction when the gun was shot bursting the barrel.

It soulds like you have a simple case of a dirty breech plug that is obstructing the ignition path OR you have powder than has absorbed some mositure and is difficult to ignite.

Blackhorn does need sufficient pressure to ignite. Are you using powerbelts? Go to blackhorn209.com and look at the ignition guidelines in the technical section.
 

Huckleberry Finn

Senior Member
15,973
135
I had one hangfire once and now keep the breach clean (can't say the same for the barrel somehow) and keep everything cold: powder and gun during the seaosn. Haven't had a problem since